Should You Buy a Reptile From PetSmart?

Paul Barclay is the owner and founder of Custom Reptile Habitats. In the episode, Paul discusses his background in the pet industry and the inspiration behind starting his own business. He talks about the lack of quality reptile enclosures and how he saw an opportunity to create something better. Paul also emphasizes the importance of big box pet stores in the industry and the need for better understanding and collaboration among different segments of the industry. He addresses the controversy surrounding the treatment of animals in breeding facilities and the importance of giving animals time to adapt to new environments. Paul concludes by expressing his passion for helping people and animals through his business.
SHOW NOTES: www.animalsathomenetwork.com/...
#185 #animalsathomepodcast
JOIN US ON PATREON: / animalsathome
CHECK OUT CUSTOM REPTILE HABITATS: www.animalsathome.ca/crh
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
customreptilehabitats.com/
/ customreptilehabitats
/ customreptilehabitats
/ customreptilehabitats
Video Clips and Photos Used in Episode:
/ customreptilehabitats
0:00 Coming Up
2:42 Welcome Paul & Background
15:35 Reptile By Mack & Understanding Big Box Pet Stores
27:20 Understanding the Pet Industry
38:02 CRH & Pateron Ad Read
38:51 Pushing Reptile Enclosures Forward
47:07 Moving on from Reptile By Mack & Starting CRH
57:39 Custom Reptile Habitats & Maximum Reptile
1:08:21 900 Gal Ball Python Enclosure with a Tub
1:23:42 Giving Reptiles Time to Adapt & Increasing Minimum Standard
1:39:12 Where do Big Box Pet Stores Fit in Herpetoculture?
1:48:28 Animal Rights, PeTA & Reptiles by Mack
2:01:14 What is the Future of Herpetoculture?
2:07:55 Closing Thoughts
2:14:26 Outro
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST:
APPLE► apple.co/347PjSO
SPOTIFY► spoti.fi/2UG5NOI
GOOGLE► bit.ly/3dX6bQq
STITCHER► bit.ly/2UFzwHM
_________________________________________
WEBSITE► www.animalsathome.ca
EMAIL►[e-mail]
FACEBOOK► / animalsathome.ca
INSTAGRAM► / animalsathomeca
DONATE TO AMAZON RAINFOREST CONSERVANCY (ARC): amazonrainforestconservancy.com/
BELOW ARE MY AMAZON AFFILIATE LINKS. PLEASE READ DISCLAIMER: More information here: www.animalsathome.ca/affiliat...
PODCAST EQUIPMENT:
ZOOM H6: amzn.to/3n2YBIP
Shure SM58: amzn.to/2Gqx2Ze
Microphone Boom: amzn.to/33g40UT
Microphone Desk Stand: amzn.to/34r6wHx
Head Phones: amzn.to/3cLmdNl
FILM & OTHER EQUIPMENT:
Shelving Unit: amzn.to/2waz0nD
Camera: amzn.to/2D8Ed0w
Lavalier Microphone: amzn.to/2oPjpac
Action Camera: amzn.to/2HeDug
Voice Over Microphone: amzn.to/2AXyq22
Drill: amzn.to/2SH9Veg
ABOUT DILLON:
Welcome to my channel, Animals at Home! Here you will find the reptile videos I have made as well as video versions of The Animals at Home Podcast! The podcast mainly focuses on the pet reptile industry. My mission with Animals at Home is simple: To inspire others to push the limits of their reptile husbandry by promoting the importance of high-level, creative husbandry individualized for each reptile.
• Exotics Keeper Magazin...

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

*CHECK OUT CUSTOM REPTILE HABITATS:* www.animalsathome.ca/crh

[@joesjoes20]

Love all the points made in regards to standards for our reptiles. The most popular reptiles to keep are in high supply with not enough demand. If reptile breeders had to keep their adult animals in minimum sized terrariums, wholesale would die overnight and "production" would start getting closer to demand. People are becoming a lot more conscious of what they buy and what their money supports, so small batch breeding might be the way going forward.

[@Net_Babylon]

But in fact, complex environments can also make the production closer to demand. The animal which is sick can't suit the complex environment and they died then, so less animals will enter the market.

[@bradsbioactivebuilds]

Great episode Dillon and Paul. A lot of good talking points while looking at the industry through a wide scope and forward thinking.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks for watching episode, Brad!

[@jeremys553]

I'm a poor but I have 3 animals growing out of their intermediate tanks within the next year, and I am happy to save and pay more money for his enclosures. So he'll get 3 big sales from me in the coming months, of course I will use your affiliate link come time. I say it all the time but another great podcast, thanks for sharing your knowledge Paul!

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

That’s awesome man! That will be a fun upgrade 😀 thanks for watching the episode, glad you enjoyed it!

[@drewspangle6446]

Man thank you, I really needed to hear this. I have an adult gargoyle gecko that I got almost 3 weeks ago and I haven’t seen him or seen food missing yet. None of my others had issues like this but it makes sense that it would throw him off in a new environment all a sudden

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Yep it takes time for them to get comfortable! You can always set up a camera to see if you can catch him out at night 👌🏼

[@geckomaster25x]

I really wish I knew that sooner about facebook and peta, that makes so much sense now

[@acaciaballpythons]

As a new small scale ball python breeder, I appreciate these new designs and advancements in enclosure options, like the S.E.S series, is it? It makes me feel like i will be able to utilize more standard size enclosures more efficiently. Being able to stack is huge. Ease of care is huge. Its hard to have more than 10 snakes without having some means of space and care efficiency. What would be incredible is a larger scale, clear tub rack system that allows for versatility and lighting. A happy medium or something. Im just thinking about how many of these 4 ft enclosures id buy and how much that would cost. Its a little cost prohibitive.

[@kirillukin2222]

Holdback rack is a great podcast! They talk about natural history of snakes too and have interesting deep dives

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Yes, they’re awesome!

[@Ron-snakesinthegarage]

As expected, another interesting and informative upload. 👍 Great job Dillon! 😃

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thank you very much! 😀

[@TheWildTypePodcast]

Agreed 👏

[@BGPythons]

Really good podcast, Paul was really interesting. I really like the enclosures would love a few but I’m not sure they are available in the UK which is a shame.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it! I’m sure Paul will chime in on this thread to answer that, but if he doesn’t, you can always reach out to him on Instagram and ask

[@mikeyben6144]

Such a great episode. Should have closed out 2023 so people can make it a 2024 goal for better pet enclosure. Had to smile a bit with Paul's comments about his snake shifting the misting nozzle. Wink, wink.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks for watching Mike, glad you enjoyed it! Damn, you’re so right! And yes, 😂 we may have to hook Paul up with some of your misting guards 😉

[@holdbackrackpodcast]

Paul is the best!

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Agreed! 😁

[@McZooExoticPets]

You have such good guests love his cages can’t wait to get a chameleon academy type cage maybe others.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks, Sean! Yeah I’m super excited about their collaboration, those Cham enclosures look awesome!

[@elizaann2]

I’m also excited for the chameleon academy line!

[@TheWildTypePodcast]

Yes! We love to push to bioactive enclosures!

[@Superior_reptiles]

Very professional and informative. Great podcast

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@melissachesney7535]

this was a fantastic show! Thank you so much for this content! My only question is, what is the name of the book you referenced in the begining?

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thank you for watching, glad you enjoyed the episode! The book is “The E-myth Revisited By Michael E. Gerber”

[@lorrainekay13]

Great episode. I've got two 6 foot CRH enclosures waiting to be assembled. :) I would like to respectfully say something regarding breeding versus wild caught that may be worth thinking about. Dav Kaufman in his Ball Pythons in the Wild did an excellent if heartbreaking job of this point. If we put a complete ban on importing wild caught reptiles the people making a living catching them will simply switch to killing them for the leather and skin trade. And that will be the end of them soon enough. And I also have a question.....who exactly is buying these thousand dollar ball pythons? Other breeders. So what is happening to the literally thousands of snakes that no one buys? What is the point of all these morphs? It definitely isn't for the welfare of the species.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Glad you enjoyed it, Lorraine! Thank you for watching. And yes, that is a great point about the wildcat trade… Definitely complicates things.

[@dacisky]

I t took a couple of days before I got the courage to watch this cause I was so afraid it would be depressing...Nope,it was excellent. I'm just an average one reptile keeper with a gargoyle gecko. I have zero interest in having a room full of animals. Anyway,I really enjoy your programming.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Glad you enjoyed this episode! Thank you for watching, as always!

[@joelh6514]

Great interview, as always!

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Much appreciated!

[@snakemannn1744]

well done ,,,,,, it was a pleasure ,,,, i do appreciate '

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks, brother 🙏🏻

[@snakemannn1744]

@@AnimalsatHomePodcast kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKPEp6Z9eqqWqcUsi=osYBQHtr7Yk-5S6j

[@af7409]

PETA is a shareholder of Facebook / Meta?

[@LatrodectusOnTheWeb]

I can either buy a reptile on the internet and have to pay an extra $50 in shipping, drive a hour and a half plus away to the closest exotic pet store that may not be better than PetSmart, or I can drive 20 minutes to PetSmart, where I get to see the animal in personbefore I buy it and its significantly cheaper because I don't have to pay $50 plus in shipping. the cheapest basic ball python I can get on morph market right now is $70 including shipping. I can get a normal ball python for $100 on Backwater Reptiles. $95 on Imperial Reptiles & Exotics. $122 on xyzreptiles. $109 on Big Apple Herp. and I can get one from PetSmart today for $50, plus a little bit of gas, but PetSmart is by everything else in town so I can run my everyday errands beforehand and not use extra gas.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Great point!

[@GabbityGabby]

I believe PETA’s claims were likely exaggerated, however I also believe large scale breeders prioritize money over animal welfare so I’m sure corners are cut, although the standard of care likely varies between facilities. However, there is a growing portion of reptile keepers like myself who in any case are preferring to purchase animals from smaller scale breeders who keep their breeding animals in “pet”-style enclosures rather than racks and such. I think smaller scale breeding is better for animal welfare in most cases, especially at this point when so many rescues are flooded with “common” reptiles. Just my two cents on it. Enjoyed the discussion on the trend towards keeping animals in larger, more naturalistic enclosures. I hope all pet stores eventually carry wonderful options like those offered by Custom Reptile Habitats.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Yep, I agree! I think most of us who are more experienced, will tend to purchase animals from small scale breeders. Thank you for watching the episode and adding to the discussion!

[@wayneabetes1840]

All these podcasts have made me despise these chain stores. I never realized how badly these animals are kept

[@MattHeet12]

Unfortunately this industry will always put profits and people (customers) before ethics, education, and the animals themselves. This is because they must do so to stay in business at such a large scale.. Until we have some form of restrictions on reptile keeping, permits etc, the problems afflicting this industry are only going to get worse as the hobby becomes more mainstream in society.. The majority of people currently keeping these animals are casual keepers and therefore will continually influence how the industry goes about doing business, which will ultimately push this hobby in the wrong direction in my opinion.. No shortage of people will potentially disagree with me, but I’ve personally worked in the retail exotic pet trade since 1994 and have continually seen the industry progress in this direction.. Sure there’s better options equipment wise for keeping reptiles today, but the core problem is the vast majority of people keeping these animals are not utilizing the optimal products, husbandry techniques, and literature even though these things are more available then they’ve ever been.. Keep in mind that even when an animal is kept in an optimal way there’s still plenty of inherent risk factors associated with artificial captive environments. This is why most zoological facilities have vets on staff and even the best keepers have issues with certain individual animals on occasion. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty risk factors in the wild as well, but the key difference is nature can almost always utilize animal mortality via natural processes that benefit the ecosystem..

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thank you for watching the episode, and providing your thoughts as well!

[@learningformyreptiles1195]

1:58:48 I know a guy that works for reptiles by Mac, it is interesting the psychological effects on the 100s of dead snakes they have to clean up, every day. But that is better than some people we know of

[@CustomReptileHabitats]

Hi Daniel, I am sorry that you are being misled like that. It really does prove the point that I am making that some in this industry will attack others without any proof whatsoever. In reality, that facility is one of the best in the industry.

[@learningformyreptiles1195]

@CustomReptileHabitats see, I think this goes into what I try to explain, when you only look at good or bad, it losses so much. You said it best the amount of animals they deal with is huge, he talked about unloading over a 1000 of snakes off one truck. So yea they are going to loss a bunch as they set them up, so it actually a good thing they coil out the dead. But even you started to say the toll it takes to loss animals. So the psychological effects on the employees is still a concern. It is what it is, not bad or good.

[@learningformyreptiles1195]

@CustomReptileHabitats it didn't sound like they just throw them all in a ban and left. It sounded like they all had to be individually placed and coiled through, which is a good practice

[@vids595]

They way that Petco keeps dart frogs should be (possible is criminal.